Part 23 (2/2)
”Well, I could hardly turn tail and run away, could I?”
”Not only that, but he said he was astonished at the judg he was thanking his stars you were so good at bossing up things, now that he was seedy, and rheumatic, and Brian had to be away a lot”
Here was soht In view ofto know that I was deemed worth my salt in any one line of livelihood But I answered--
”Well, if you've put your hand to the plough it's satisfactory to know that you're driving a straight furrow”
”Rather Brian, too, is always boo you, and as for those two kids, why they don't cheek you a bit”
”Is that a sign of esteehed, for the idea tickled me
Further, I admit a littleness--in the shape of an anxiety to hear whether Beryl had added her quota to the general testin, he forebore to gratifytheir natural temperaments, it means that they e”
”Poor little devil! He's had the cheek considerably taken out of hie”
”So I should iot Iris out of the sea that time at East London It was--”
But whatever ”it was” I didn't want to hear
”Stop there, Pentridge,” I said ”That's a forbidden topic and one I'm completely sick of It was hly at home in the water as I aht, old chap,” he answered good-hu about himself He had been some years in a slow Dutch townshi+p on the border line between the Eastern and Western Province, and had come to Fort Lamport to try and set up a practice there if he could buy out the District Surgeon, as old and inclined to be shaky ”Yes,” I thought so to that particular place are not difficult to fathos were coether, andseeht of this it seemed equally obvious that, apart from the catastrophe which had overtakenin a fool's paradise, and I don't knohether the discovery rendered the situation any better forI had been doing an exhaustive round of the place and struck the ht down to this on each side, and as I gained it I could see two other riders approaching Even then I would have withdrawn, not wishi+ng to be the one too many, but they had seen me Yet I had seen theether, and, with a jealous pang, hoell they looked together, how co lovely, the warm paleness of her face just suffused by the exercise, and the generous kiss of the free open air with just a sparkle of crisp keenness in it She looked splendid in the saddle, too, as she always did, sitting her horse with the race--Meerkat, that very horse I had risked my life to recover and restore to her Many a siether, she and I
And ah! how little I had appreciated it then, I found ; yet now to look back upon those tie seehtly put out as I joined thes I flattered myself I was not quite such a fool as Trask, and consequently knehen I was not wanted Beryl, on the other hand, did not give even the most subtle indication of disturbance; but then, after all, woood ride?” I asked carelessly, dropping the bridle rein on the horse's neck, and shi+elding a ht a pipe
”Er--yes Jolly,” answered Pentridge But Beryl said--
”I don't think there'son the place while you're about, Kenrick Why, you're as good as ten policemen”
”Don't know if that's to be taken as a compliment after the way I've heard soh
”Why, of course it is But you are really too good about it You ht,” I rejoined in would-be airy tone ”Best thing in the world for e eyes, deep with one of those strange, unfathoed, were full on et uneasily Well, I was not going to be a -in-the-er about me, as I replied--
”Well, I shall have to leave you now By the ti-in time And the oftener Notuba's sheep are counted, the better, in e's face cleared, for he knew that the course I now proposed to pursue would take les from their line of ood of Beryl
”I thought you were going to ride hoenuine disappointment, why then she was even a better actress than I had at first reckoned her
”I wish I could,” I answered ”But now Brian's away, you know! You see it's a matter I take a pride in”
”Yes, I know you do,” she said; and there was that in her way of saying it that brought back all the old time